The upbeat rhythm.

I was a fourth year medical student when one of my consultants read my blog, and he said that you should have an upbeat theme in your writings. It was hard to understand it back then, but now I know how important it is to have that upbeat theme, but not in the writings, but in life. 

I found myself smoking a cigar an hour before I had started typing this blog post, there was a gentle breeze that would blow in spells, and there was this beautiful silence that had surrounded the surroundings. I closed my eyes as I took in a puff, kept the smoke in my mouth just long enough to feel that spicy taste pierce my palate. What a feeling it was, being isolated from everything as I would enjoy that cigar. 

Before you go on further, yes I know that smoking is injurious to health. But sometimes you need to try things that you had wanted to, this is one of those things. A good half an hour I had spent, all to myself. 

The upbeat theme of life, it is easy to say it, and it’s easier to type it. But the real thing is to understand it, to grasp the meaning that’s inside of it. Having a positive outlook, having a smile on your face as you walk through your day. But who is the smile for? Someone coming from the other side, a stranger? Are you really smiling for a stranger? You can, but let me ask you a question. Who is more important, you or the stranger or the world full of stranger that’s around you, me and everyone else. The answer is quite clear, isn’t it my friend? And it’s You! 

So try to understand this, that smile is not to make you approachable, that smile is not to make you feel friendly cause trust me, you can smile all you want and if they’re not finding you attractive then they won’t approach you. So why smile for yourself? Well ask yourself, why be sad for yourself then. You have one shot at life, you have a finite source of energy and you just have 24 hours in a day, would you rather feel sorry for yourself and frown, you’re spending your energy and being sad. Not helping yourself, or would you smile because you’re alive, because you can still try to do something and you’ll notice that when you have this smile on your face, you’ll feel lighter and relaxed. See this is something that you’ve done for yourself, without involving anyone else, you’ve been selfish for your own self to give yourself some space, and you feel good. This is your time, this is your life and you deserve an upbeat theme in your life, because let’s be honest there’s already too much to worry about and we don’t have the energy to change everything. But we can do something, something that could impact so many things and that is having an upbeat theme to your life. There’s something good in something around you, no matter how small it might be, but you can find something good if you want to. 

Look at things with the intention of finding yourself, you matter and yes, you do. Don’t smile for you to appear friendly, smile because you need to grant yourself this. 

If you smile for yourself, you will understand that the little things matter. If you smile for others you’ll always think that the little things don’t matter because the little things might not make much sense to them. For example, I enjoy being able to write an entry in my journal, this isn’t a big achievement. This is something personal, this is a little thing. Finding time to express my thoughts, but to others it probably won’t matter because this little thing doesn’t involve them. Little things are about you doing something that would make you feel better, make you feel good and if you’re able to make others feel good too, then you have successfully extended and involved someone else in your happiness. That is a bonus, not always there but it can be there. 

Try listening to Beverly Penn by the waterboys.